Stephen King and Philosophy (Great Authors and Philosophy) by Jacob M. Held

Stephen King and Philosophy (Great Authors and Philosophy) Reviews

• 
  Dannii Elle

  I received this on a read to review basis from NetGalley. Thank you to the editor, Jacob M. Held, and the publisher, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, for the opportunity.
  
  This is a fascinating little insight into the philosophical issues raised and addressed in the numerous works of horror maestro, Stephen King. This brings forward the ideology that, whilst dealing with horrifying and often supernatural elements, King's writing primarily deals with the human condition. This leads to questions arising concerning the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence in the novels and dissected in this book.
  
  This brings forward the theories and ideologies of philosophical greats like Hume, Aristotle and Plato and uses King's writing to exemplify their strategy and significance. What is left is well-rounded arguments for a variety of topics such as the existence for and against God, why we love horror, Oedipal mental dynamic repressions and the representation of femininity and sexuality.
  
  Both the editor and King themselves argue against these horror novels as not apexing the scale of literary greatness and yet these essays provide proof of the depth and diversity of the topics touched upon. It certainly made me eager to reread King with a more academic gaze heightened with my new knowledge and perception.
  
  The only negative (and the subsequent loss of one star) was that each essay was often littered with spoilers about the texts they were addressing. I can see no way the editor could have gone around this without leaving out critical information and creating a less fully-rounded argument. It did, however, ruin the few King novels I have yet to read.
• 
  Heena Rathore Pardeshi

  A good book for King fans though I had to skip some of the parts because of not having read some books on which the parts were based on. But I really enjoyed the writing and did enjoy the various discussions.
• 
  Lolly K Dandeneau

  I don't know anyone who hasn't a clue who Stephen King is. If they haven't read any of his work, certainly they have seen something. This is dissecting his work, but nothing macabre about it. While I confess to being disturbed by his horror stories it's a strangely fulfilling panic. Carrie is so much more than a misfit who takes her revenge as much as every story King has written holds more meaning than simply to frighten or thrill us. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is a short story that lodged in my throat, thick with emotion. It's proof that while he is the master of horror, he can create beautiful stories about human beings too. His characters can be low lives or weirdos but never just that. To think of his work as fast food for readers doesn't ring true and in Stephen King and Philosophy there is evidence why his writing is full of meaning. Fan or not, it is an interesting read. I found myself thinking about what he is telling the reader, intentionally or not. Naturally, we all read a different story when handed the same book. Our own life experiences, where we are in life, everything merges with our reading so no one has the same exact perception nor emotions. I think the same can be said of writing. Our stories take on lives of their own, sometimes authors (just like artists) may even unintentionally be saying something they hadn't set out to say. It sneaks it's way out through the pen and when it's pointed out they think 'hmmm, I am saying something here."
  I particularly enjoyed reading Held's thoughts on Carrie and it's rich symbolism of coming into womanhood. I also thought about the male friendships in the stories The Body (which Lean On Me was based on) and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. I remember feeling so many different emotions because of The Body. How is it he can write about boys looking for a dead boy (which is in itself horrifying) and yet conjure this emotional journey where they are free to express their feelings (something certainly not encouraged in those days)? Held has done a much better job of exploring the meaning and depths of King's work and I spent time pondering things I never considered, somehow neglected to absorb. This book is incredibly engaging and I can't wait to read reviews by die hard King fans.
• 
  Ethan

  I originally picked this up out of personal interest with the vague thought that I might use it in a class someday (I'm a philosophy professor). This semester I'm teaching a class on horror and philosophy, so I thought this book might provide some interesting material for that class. And I was right! I assigned the Littmann chapter on why people like horror and the Allen chapter on Pet Sematary, The Tommyknockers, deathism, and posthumanism. Those both worked well in class (the students read Pet Sematary).
  
  I skipped or skimmed some of the chapters (especially those on the Dark Tower series, which I haven't finished yet but I plan to pick up with book six soon now that I'm done with this). Other favorites were the Byal article on Carrie and female subjectivity, the Mannien piece on friendship in the superb novellas Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and The Body, Hornbeck on The Shining and heterotopia, Bane on the death of the author in The Shining (dealing with the novel and the film), and Held on Schopenhauer, compassion, The Tommyknockers, and Desperation.
  
  Books on philosophy and pop culture can often be hit or miss, but this one was mostly pretty good. I have (as I like to say) rekindled my relationship with Stephen King in recent years after not reading him much since high school. Jacob Held has edited a volume that has enriched my love of Stephen King as both a fan and a philosopher. It makes me appreciate all the work I have read and excited to read all the books I haven't gotten to yet (Held's pieces, for example, make me keen to read Desperation, which never sounded all that intriguing to me before). Who knows? There might even be an iteration of a universe with a future in which I teach a whole class on Stephen King and Philosophy with this as the main text. Maybe we live in that universe now?
  
  There are some spoilers in most of the chapters, but I'm not the kind of person that minds them much. As King himself says somewhere, if you really love reading for the experience of reading, spoilers shouldn't bother you that much. I think he's right, which is a good thing as I embark upon the last few Dark Tower books having been spoiled by some of the chapters here. After I finish the Dark Tower series I may revisit some of the essays in this book, and then revisit the Dark Tower, and then re-revisit this book, and ....
  
  (See my blog review:
  https://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/2...)
• 
  Kevin Lucia

  Excellent. Took me awhile, but only because of stacks of books. Full review soon on CDonline.
• 
  Artemiz

  Stephen King and Philospohy - deem, it was interesting and difficult read.
  
  It's difficult, since sometimes I got the feeling like the author forgot that this was suposed to be about King and their thinking got lost in open fields of philosophy or in another authors books.
  
  It was interesting, since it's about Stephen King, about some of King's books and about philosophy. It's a pity that it covered only some books (films), since King has many more wonderful books, but I understand that if it would cover all his books .... Anyway, be warned if you have not read all the King's books, especially his first books, this book contains spoilers about endings and key points.
  
  Interesting and enchanting reading.
• 
  scherzo♫

  Some essays were very good, a couple didn't say much repeatedly.
  
  Chapter 10 Broadcast Dystopia (Power and Violence in The Running Mile and The Long Walk)
  - Joseph J. Foy & Timothy M. Dale
  

  "It is true that storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
  -Hannah Arendt
  
  In her "Reflections on Violence," Hannah Arendt describes the way in which violence--not power or force or strength--has, through technological development and historical evolution, become a means confused with its end. Rather than violence being the way in which regimes pursue goals that they deem necessary, violence itself becomes one of the purposes of society. The existence of war in this context becomes a pervasive condition of society instead of a limited activity of necessity. The people who live in such a society must accept that human life is expendable, and willingly accept that violence is to be preferred over connection to others. ....
  
  The violence gets more and more extreme and pervasive, as does the structural violence within the system designed to maintain the extreme gaps between the wealthiest and the poor. As is postulated by Arendt when describing the divergence of power and violence, the more violence that is applied, the more resources and efforts the state must dedicate to that violence, further diminishing its ability to meet the needs of governance. ....
• 
  Book Him Danno

  I found the insight and philosophical issues address in in many of Stephen Kings book interesting and this story. From Carrie to the Dark Tower series each book deal with the horrifying and often supernal side of the human mind. IF you get past the imaginary of Stephen King you find he write about the human condition and how people react to the unknown. Each Novel brings up questions we all much find answers for ourselves.
  
  This book dives into those questions and answer we have to find and justify. This book has a look at the different series and books written by Stephen King and the questions he sends out to readers as they find themselves pulled from word to word. A questions is brought out is Stephen King another philological like Aristotle and Plato using words to imaginary to help the human mind discover what they need to find out for themselves.
  FYI if you haven't reads some of Stephen King Novels this will ruin some of those stories and plots. So read with cautions.
  
  Received Advance Copy from Netgalley.
• 
  GONZA

  The essays that I appreciated in this book, are mostly the one about The Dark Tower series, IMHO because it's a philosophical story in itself. Some of the other were too complicated or they seem to have no real philosophy to talk of, but maybe it's just because I'm not so aware and interested in philosophy myself, or not intelligent enough.
  
  I saggi che mi sono piaciuti di piú sono quelli che hanno scritto riguardo alla serie de "La torre nera", fondamentalmente perché, secondo me, quella é una storia filosofica in sé per sé. Alcuni degli altri saggi o erano troppo complicati o mi sembrava che volessero inserire a forza la filosofia dove non c'entrava niente, ma magari ho avuto questa impressione perché non conosco bene l'argomento o, piú probabile ancora, non sono abbastanza intelligente da capire.
  
  THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND ROWMAN AND LITTLEFIELD FOR THE PREVIEW!
• 
  Sara

  This was a great insight into what makes good villains in a story and why ordinary people relate in different ways to them.
• 
  Kristina

  This is a difficult review to write because there is simply so much that this book covers. The authors use the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche and others to examine and illuminate the works of one of today's most popular and beloved writers, Stephen King. As it states in one of the chapters, "This very book you hold is an attempt to use the writings of Stephen King as a tool to examine important philosophical issues." Elsewhere, the book states "...once we note how much works of popular fiction are infused with philosophical concepts and ideas, we begin to see that philosophy is everywhere, and that having an understanding of certain philosophical ideas and concepts can add depth, and enjoyment, to our reading of literature." The book covers a wide array of King's works and studies the philosophical implications of them in great depth and detail.
  The chapters included are as follows:
  
  Introduction: On Writing Popular Philosophy
  1. There Is No God In Desperation:
  Tak and the Problem of Evil
  2. Female Subjectivity in Carrie
  3. "Sometimes Dead is Better": King,
  Daedalus, DragonTyrants, and
  Deathism
  4. "Gan is Dead": Nietzsche and
  Roland's Eternal Recurrence
  5. Rāma of Gilead: Hindu Philosophy
  In The Dark Tower
  6. What's Wrong with Roland?:
  Utilitarianism and the Dark Tower
  7. Stephen King and Aristotelian
  Friendship: An Analysis of The
  Body and Rita Hayworth and the
  Shawshank Redemption
  8. Propaganda and Pedagogy for Apt
  Pupils
  9. The Shining's Overlook Hotel as
  Heterotopia
  10. Broadcast Dystopia: Power and
  Violence in The Running Man and
  The Long Walk
  11. Stephen King and the Art of
  Horror
  12. "You Weren't Hired to
  Philosophize, Torrance": The
  Death of the Author in The
  Shining
  13. What Happens to the Present
  When it Becomes the Past:
  Time Travel and the Nature of
  Time in The Langoliers
  14. Notes on Foreknowledge, Truth-
  Making, and Counterfactuals from
  The Dead Zone
  15. Time Belongs to the Tower
  16. Ur 88,416
  17. From Desperation to Haven:
  Horror, Compassion, and Arthur
  Schopenhauer
  Ka-tet: Author Biographies
  
  As a longtime devoted reader of King, I enjoyed this book immensely. Additionally, I learned a lot about Philosophy: theories, teachings, etc. Some of this is pretty heavy reading and some chapters are stronger than others, but, overall, this is an exceptional book that I'd recommend highly. Thank you to Netgalley and Rowman & Littlefield for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  J Earl

  Stephen King and Philosophy, edited by Jacob M Held, is a collection of essays focusing on philosophical readings of many of King's works. While this is somewhat academic in style the essays are accessible and concepts, as used by the writers, are explained adequately.
  
  Like any book about an author's work, there are so-called spoilers. If you haven't read the works under discussion then the essays can only be read passively since one doesn't have a frame of reference to decide if the argument, to them, is valid. So this isn't really for people who haven't read some or most of King's work. I only bring this up because I saw someone who counted that as a negative when no book with which I am familiar that seriously tackles an author's work does so without substantiating their points with the author's text. I was surprised at the "criticism" of this work on that basis.
  
  I did not find every argument equally convincing but that is to be expected. That said, I did not feel any essay went too far afield in their commentary, my differences tended to be one of degree. King's appeal has long been the human element, more precisely the element of human flaws, and how that can lead to catastrophe or at least extreme negative consequences. It is in the matching of this dynamic, flaws leading to consequences, to philosophical ideas where this book excels.
  
  For those without a philosophy background, I think the essays present the philosophy parts of their assessments in fairly plain language, so don't be too concerned about that. It might require some pauses to make sure you are following the writer but you will be able to get through it. For those with a philosophy background, as you well know, there is always more left unsaid about a given philosopher's thought than is said, so try not to overly nitpick because a writer didn't use what you would have used given the same assignment. Unless you feel what was said was either wrong or misused it is nothing more than a different approach.
  
  I would certainly recommend this to any Stephen King fan who likes to ponder a work after reading it. Educators will find this useful for both teaching King in the future and for ways to approach other authors through a philosophical lens.
  
  Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
• 
  CoCoBug

  *An honest review of this book is being given in exchange for the free e-version provided by Net Galley.
  
  A very thorough and in-depth look at some of King's writings, including a lot of his earlier novels. It's a little bit of a difficult read (it is based on philosophy after all), and Held occasionally goes off on tangents with other authors, quotes, and books, but it is an intriguing view on some of King's greatest works. I'm an avid reader of King, but not of philosophy, so I think the reader must be interested in both to thoroughly enjoy the finer points of this book.
  
  Many have commented on the spoiler aspect of the analysis for each book, but I'm thinking that the target audience for this selection is those who have already read most of King's books and enjoyed them. I don't really see a newbie buying this before having a vested interest in King.
  
  
  This is the first in Held's philosophy series, and I think it is interesting he chose King. Something Stephen King has said (and written, as in 11/22/63) has always resonated with me - "Sometimes a story is just a story". I really loved this about King as I think fantastic literature can be written to be enjoyable and not always as an allegory or statement that one must analyze. King himself has stated that Tommyknockers is trash and his least favorite novel that he has written, but Held has put forth his philosophical viewpoint anyway. This is why a star has been taken off - while many valid points have been presented, I feel like with King it is possibly over-analyzed a tad. My question is did King write these books with such intent on the philosophical side? Maybe in some (such as The Dark Tower series) but I'm not quite sure on others.
• 
  Jacqui

  Having been a Stephen King fan for many years I figured that this would be an interesting philosophical discussion of his more disturbing (or not) works. Having previously studied branches of philosophy for academic work , I thought I was partly equipped for what was to come, but I was oh so wrong. Jumping straight into Desperation after the forward set the tone of the dialogue, since the dark and good themes in the book weigh quite heavily on the mind. Moving into Carrie and Pet Semetary, the discussion moved past casual reading for me. It was like being back at varsity and I put the book away a number of times. So much repetition and rewording of the same ideas just gave me a headache. Once we hit the topics of bonds of friendship in The Body and Rita Hayworth I started feeling like it was a book I could read comfortably again, and the writing flowed a lot better for me. More interesting ideas were now explored from the teacher/pupil dynamic in Apt Pupil, to the possibility of time travel in The Langoliers and 11/22/63 and the application of power and violence in The Running Man and The Long Walk. Of course The Shining and The Dark Tower cropped up time after time with a look at many different aspects of the books.
  
  This is not a light read by any means and I wonder sometimes if we can't just read a book for the sake of reading it. Do we need to dissect the author's intentions or just accept it for the narrative it is meant to be? I thought that too many of King's books were overlooked with some of the same books repeated in a number of different chapters. In some places the write ups about the authors were far more entertaining than the philosophy. An interesting take but not my cup of tea - I think I'll stick to "Stephen King for Dummies".
  
• 
  Stacie C

  Actual rating 3.5 stars. Review to come.